| Wine region | |
 | |
| Type | Appellation d'origine contrôlée |
|---|---|
| Year established | 1936 |
| Country | France |
| Part of | Burgundy 46°09′N 4°39′E / 46.15°N 4.65°E |
| Soil conditions | Granite, schist, clay and sandstone |
| Total area | 10,500 ha |
| Grapes produced | Gamay with a little Pinot noir (and the local variation of Pinot Liébault), Chardonnay, Aligoté, Pinot gris (known locally as Pinot Beurot), Pinot blanc and Melon de Bourgogne |
| Wine produced | Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, cru Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau |
Beaujolais (/ˌboʊʒəˈleɪ/ BOH-zhə-LAY, French: [boʒɔlɛ]) is a French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine in the Burgundy region. Beaujolais wines are generally made of the Gamay grape, which has a thin skin and is low in tannin, but like most AOC wines they are not labeled varietally. Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made mostly with Chardonnay grapes though Aligoté is also permitted until 2024 (on condition the vines were planted before 2004). Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity. In some vintages, Beaujolais produces more wine than the Burgundy wine regions of Chablis, Côte d'Or, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais put together.[1]
The wine takes its name from the historical Province of Beaujolais, a wine-producing region. It is located north of Lyon, and covers parts of the north of the department of Rhône, the Rhône-Alpes region and southern areas of the department of Saône-et-Loire, in Burgundy. While administratively considered part of the Burgundy wine region, the climate is closer to that of the Rhône, and the wine is sufficiently individual in character to be considered apart from Burgundy and Rhône. The region is known internationally for its long tradition of winemaking, for the use of carbonic maceration, and more recently for the popular Beaujolais nouveau.
- ^ J. Robinson (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Wine (Third Ed.), pp. 72–74. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.